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* 









Neighboring New 
Americans 


By 

MARY CLARK BARNES 

Author of “ Stories and Songs for 
Teaching English,” etc. 



New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 











Copyright, 1920, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



Acknowledgment 

The author takes pleasure in acknowledging the 
courtesy of the Editors of “The Biblical World,” 
of “ The Standard,” and of “ The Watchman- 
Examiner,” in granting permission for the use in 
this volume of material originally contributed to 
their columns, and of Secretaries of The Board of 
Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, 
of the American Baptist Publication Society, and 
of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
for permission to use here material written for pub¬ 
lication in pamphlets issued by them. 


©C1A570715 


JUL ! 6 1920 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Contents 


I. The Approach.9 

II. Teaching English to Adults . . .21 

III. Church Neighboring. 32 

IV. Cooperation with Daily Vacation Schools 42 

V. Cooperation with Public Schools and 

Libraries.50 

VI. Concerning Books for New and Old 

Americans.60 


“In America, man stands face to face with 
a civilization in the making 


The House of Brotherhood 

ll MERIC A, America! 



The shouts of war shall cease; 


y % The Glory dawns! The Day is come 
*** Of Victory and Peace! 

And now upon a larger plan 
We’ll build the common good, 

The Temple of the Love of Man, 

The House of Brotherhood. 

What though its stones were laid in tears. 

Its pillars red with wrong, 

Its walls shall rise through patient years 
To soaring spires of song! 

For on this House shall Faith attend, 

With Joy on airy wing, 

And flaming Loyalty ascend 
To God, the only King. 

America, America! 

Ring out the glad refrain! 

Salute the Flag—salute the dead, 

That have not died in vain ! 

O Glory! Glory to thy plan 
To build the common good. 

The Temple of the Rights of Man, 

The House of Brotherhood.” 


THE APPROACH 


A SCHOOLBOY studying the poems of Robert 
Browning as a part of bis course in English 
literature was asked by an older friend, 
“ Isn’t Browning hard to be understood? ” “ No,” 
was the quick reply, “ the Browning is easy, but the 
notes we have to learn about it are awfully hard.” 

Some of the definitions and “ the notes ” which 
we are supposed to master about the much dis¬ 
cussed “Americanization Problem ” of our day are 
vastly entertaining even if they are not “awfully 
hard.” 

That we who are supposed to compose the great 
model Democracy of the World should grope about 
awkwardly for “ a method ” of knocking at the door 
of a foreign-born neighbor and going in to face the 
question of finding common names for common 
things of mutual concern indicates how far we have 
drifted from normal human relationships. 

Brigadier General W. J. Nicholson of the U. S. 
9 


IO NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


Army, writing of the educational work done in 
Camp Upton, authorizes the statement that: “ In 
three months and often in less time men were taught 
sufficient English to enable them to receive, ex¬ 
ecute and transmit verbal orders and messages in¬ 
telligently, and also to read and understand or¬ 
dinary written or printed matter as contained in 
the various drill regulations, soldiers’ handbooks, 
etc.” The Roster of these men represents fourteen 
nationalities, including one American. (Formerly 
illiterate.) 

General Nicholson adds, “The most amazing 
thing is that these men within a few days after their 
entry into the army lose their racial feelings. 
They eat together, sleep together, go to school to¬ 
gether and drill together. They rub elbows with 
each other and learn each other’s good points, and 
get the American view-point in a remarkably short 
time.” 

Now this which General Nicholson reports as, 
“ The most amazing thing ” resulting from the edu¬ 
cational experiment in Camp Upton is the desired 
goal of most of the “Americanization work ” which 
occupies public attention at the present time. 

The methods used in Camp Upton would be as 
successful in civilian communities as in military 
camps. If we will face, once for all, the impera- 



THE APPROACH 


ii 


tive obligation to conserve “ the man power of this 
nation and the increase in efficiency in the produc¬ 
tion ” of all that makes for the realization of high 
ideals of peace, as we faced and met the obligation 
to conserve in war-time, our “Americanization 
Problem 77 soon will vanish. 

A man who had known in another camp training 
similar to that which had been conducted in Camp 
Upton came to the Neighbors League of America 
seeking employment after being mustered out of the 
army. He was referred to the nearest Government 
Employment Office. 

“ I was there / 7 he responded. 

“And you found no work ? 77 

“Work? Yes, but in basement , 77 he replied. 
“ No good light even in day; no air, nothing good. 
I went to see. No, it is impossible now . 77 

After a pause during which the Neighbors League 
member waited, watching him silently, he con¬ 
tinued, “ Five years ago when I came in America 
first, I was glad for anything. I did work in base¬ 
ment. I worked hard all day. At evening I worked 
hard in school to get English. I went to war for 
America myself,—not by draft. Now, these months 
I have been man with men, out in the open. My 
eyes, they know the sunshine. My lungs, they 
learned the taste of fresh air. They have ex- 



12 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


panded.” He threw back his broad shoulders with 
a gesture of pride as he added, “ I, too, am larger. 
I now am American citizen. I cannot go back to 
basement to work in dark with no air.” 

“ What do you want to do? ” 

“ I would be farmer,” he replied. “As American 
Citizen, I should take some ground for my own, and 
make it do its best for me and,—for more than just 
me. Government promised us that. Government 
should not send us back to dark, close, basement for 
work.” 

Later in the conversation he talked of his life in 
the camp. 

“ The teachers were fine,” he said. “ They knew 
that I was just workman. That made no differ¬ 
ence. Every man was man, all together. Camp is 
a great place to find out men and friends.” 

“ Did they all enjoy it as you did? ” 

“ Well, you know with 1,500 men from all kinds 
of countries, they cannot all be just alike. Every 
man of them knows that he needs English here. It 
was the first chance that had come to many. They 
worked hard to get all they could. To some, just 
to know that they must seemed reason for not doing 
it. All would like Neighbors League idea, just learn 
English to be neighborly, and help everybody. Is 
that it? I know for sure that this is what they all 



THE APPROACH 


13 


need, English language and good neighbors. Lots 
of us fellows have found that out. The fellows who 
have come back, they understand.” 

We who never w r ent, do we understand? 

“I prayed for a good neighbor, but I did not 
know that it could be,” said a woman of foreign 
lineage recently. That prayer fills the soul of many 
a foreign-born resident in America. 

Quick illumination of the face of a non-English- 
speaking man or woman in response to some little 
neighborly attention will often reveal a hungry 
soul looking out in search of friends. 

The foreign-born mothers of America’s children 
are the most isolated of all our non-English-speak¬ 
ing people. It is reported that thirty-five to fifty 
per cent, of them are absolutely illiterate and that 
thirty-five to eighty per cent, are illiterate in Eng¬ 
lish. Less than one per cent, of them are reported 
as being enrolled in classes for learning English. 
The home cares of the mothers of large families of 
little children prevent their regular attendance at 
public classes even in communities in which such 
classes have been provided. 

Beginnings in many cases must be with indi¬ 
viduals. The immigrant woman, whose home cares 
prevent frequent contacts with the outside world, 
is usually shy, sensitive to criticism, and fears to 



14 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


expose her ignorance and her mistakes by trying to 
learn with others. Sometimes the first offer of 
lessons in English to a woman of this type is de¬ 
clined with the excuse “ too old,” “ too busy,” “ too 
dumb,” or “not want,” although a keen observer 
can read in wistful eyes a longing for the help 
which is rejected instinctively from lack of cour¬ 
age to make the venture. Persistent encourage¬ 
ment has brought success in many cases of this 
kind. 

Among many reasons for according special con¬ 
sideration to them is the fact that in addition to 
being potential voters in their own right, they, as 
the mothers of a large proportion of America’s 
children, hold the keys of America’s future. 

In any city in the northern States compare the 
number of children in homes in so-called “ resi¬ 
dential sections ” with the number of children in 
the “ foreign district.” By as much as the children 
in the alleys outnumber the children on the avenues, 
by so much is the potential voting power of the alley 
for to-morrow greater than that of the avenues. 
Study of history reveals the fact that in a democ¬ 
racy under republican forms of government, leader¬ 
ship comes oftener from the man born in the alley 
or in the rural district than from the one born on 
the avenue. Leadership of men is less easily ac- 



THE APPROACH 


15 


quired by one born to wealth than by one born to 
poverty, one whose whole life involves training in 
overcoming obstacles. 

The foreign-born parents of America’s children 
have met the physical tests required for their ad¬ 
mission to the United States. They have had the 
ambition, the enterprise, the faith, the initiative, 
which have led them to leave the land of their 
nativity, the old home, the old ties, the old associa¬ 
tions, in search of something better for themselves 
and their children—motives which have been the 
spur to immigration in all climes, in all ages. 

Children so fathered, so mothered, are quick, 
alert, eager to take their places as citizens in the 
land whose fame has been the lure of their parents. 

Proud of being Americans, they sing “ My Coun¬ 
try, ’tis of Thee.” They salute the flag, their flag. 
They listen to stories of American heroes told by 
Teacher in school and read more of them in books 
provided by Teacher. They live in a world of their 
own, a world glowing with stirring adventures and 
heroic deeds. 

With every sense quickened by contact with the 
new environment, they become acutely conscious of 
the contrast between Teacher and the foreign-look¬ 
ing, foreign-acting, foreign-speaking Mother and 
Father. 



16 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


A growing conviction of the failure of their 
parents to understand not only the new language 
but also the rules of the new life, leads to the rejec¬ 
tion of their influence and of their authority. 

Public school, Sunday school, Industrial school 
and other “ Child-Welfare ” organizations may 
claim the children during, at most, thirty-eight 
hours of the week. During the remaining 130 
hours of each week they are a law unto themselves. 
The fact that a large proportion of the children 
found in Juvenile Courts are the children of law- 
abiding foreign-born parents results from their 
separation from their parents by a gulf of alien 
speech, leaving them virtually orphaned in their 
own homes. If these alert, sensitive girls and boys, 
eager for their part in American life, could see an 
American woman, not necessarily “ Teacher,” but 
one manifestly quite the equal of “ Teacher ” com¬ 
ing into the home as Mother’s friend, teaching 
Mother the English language as a means of opening 
possibilities of mutual understanding and interest, 
discussing with Mother, American customs and 
ideals; if growing boys could see an intelligent 
American man coming to “ Father ” in neighborly 
fashion, teaching English, discussing community 
interests with him—mothers and fathers in homes 
of our New Americans would regain and hold the 



THE APPROACH 


17 


parental influence and control which are essential 
to the efficiency and the stability of our national 
life. 

This is the tragedy not only of family life, but 
no less of national life. Obedience to just laws, 
reverence for rightly constituted authority are 
fundamental essentials of security and peace in 
every land. 

What part have native-born Americans played in 
the tragedy? Have we segregated ourselves from 
the newcomers by promptly moving to another 
locality among people of our own kind, whenever 
“ foreigners ” have come to live in our neighbor¬ 
hood? 

Have we left the man to find a “ job ” and the 
family to find a home in the slums as best they can, 
and then, in our hearts, and possibly in our speech, 
have we ranked them down as if the job and the 
slum home represented their ideals of life? But the 
cost of exchanging the free, open-air life of a 
peasant home for the darkened existence of close, 
crowded quarters in the narrowest of our city 
streets, was something which they could not count, 
because it had been unknown to them. In thou¬ 
sands of cases they have settled down to it in a 
spirit bordering on despair—a mute, unutterable 
despair. 



18 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


When it has dawned on us, more or less clearly, 
that the lack of mutual understanding between par¬ 
ents and children leaves something to be desired for 
the normal development of the children, we have 
created and multiplied “ Child-Welfare Organiza¬ 
tions ” and clubs and classes of many types and 
many titles. But the fundamental lack is there, 
for there can be no efficient child welfare which 
does not include “ parent welfare.” We must be¬ 
gin—not as theorizers, but as practical workers. 
“What to do?” is the real Americanization prob- 
blem, so far as native-born Americans are con¬ 
cerned. What to do? 

We have done some things. Yes. We have had 
“ mothers’ meetings ” in the schoolhouse or in the 
mission chapel in “ down-town neighborhoods.” 
The mothers have come, babies in arms, and little 
children too young to go to school clinging to their 
skirts. They have sat in rows at one end of the 
room and have watched their older children being 
put through their paces on a platform at the other 
end of the room. They have smiled their uncom¬ 
prehending smiles at the pronouncements which 
they could not understand. They have been given 
tea and wafers; their babies have been patted and 
praised and they have gone away, still wearing 
their pathetic smiles, and in their hearts a fresh 



THE APPROACH 


19 


impression of the distance between them and their 
Americanized children. 

We have failed to touch the heart of the problem. 
The need is for personal human friendship, ex¬ 
pressed in mutually understood speech. Their 
hearts are hungry for American neighbors; and 
adequate neighboring requires the use of a common 
language. To teach them America’s language in 
order that they may learn America’s ideals, is the 
first necessity in genuinely efficient Americaniza¬ 
tion work. 

How shall the need be met? Shall it be by an 
increase in institutionalism? Shall it be by adding 
to the machinery of social agencies? 

Churches, public schools, industrial plants, cham¬ 
bers of commerce, clubs, settlements, can do much, 
but in the last analysis, all depends on the personal 
element. The need cannot be met by sending to 
“ the foreign quarter ” “ missionaries, speaking in 
their own languages,” to the people who are hud¬ 
dled together there, and by going down on special 
occasions to give the sanction of our presence to the 
movement. We must give ourselves. War prob¬ 
lems were met by personal service. We still are 
in the early dawn of the “ morning after.” 

We who gave husbands and sons and brothers in 
that black night of horror to bring Christian de- 



20 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


mocracy to the world, how shall we withhold our¬ 
selves from the service needed to complete the work 
for which they gave their lives? This is the new 
crusade which challenges all our powers, all our 
resources of insight, of sympathy, of native intelli¬ 
gence and discernment, all our education and 
training. 

Like every great movement, its method is simple. 
Just genuine, personal, direct, neighboring; woman 
with woman, man with man, native-born with for¬ 
eign-born, in the spirit of Him who gave Him¬ 
self “ that they might have life and have it more 
abundantly.” 



II 


TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 


T HE first essential is sympathetic observance 
of the Golden Rule. 

If I were a foreigner in Russia, in Bul¬ 
garia, in Korea, in any country whose language I 
could not understand or speak, certain words would 
be especially necessary for me. 

Among the terms which I should need first, would 
be, “name, country, go, east, west, north, south, 
man, woman, show, help, people.” 

In order to secure my living, whether at a hotel 
table, or through work and wages and marketing, I 
should need to know the terms for ordinary articles 
of food, such as “ bread, water, milk, meat, cheese, 
cake.” 

In connection with industry I should need the 
terms for “planting, building, mending, buying, 
selling, losing, finding, cooking, baking, serving, 
sweeping, sewing.” 

In order to become acquainted, even in an ele¬ 
mentary way, with the social customs of the coun¬ 
try, I should need to know the terms used to desig- 
21 


22 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


nate “ wife, husband, father, mother, brother, sister, 
relative, employer, servant, clothing, goods, riches.” 

These terms and others composing the vocabulary 
of common life and daily need are used so con¬ 
stantly in Old Testament narratives and New 
Testament parables that it is easy to give elemen¬ 
tary lessons in English wholly through Biblical 
material. 

In a multitude of cases this material has 
proved to be as new, as impressive, to classes of 
adults learning English through its use as to those 
who heard it for the first time in ancient days. 

An incident proving their lack of familiarity 
with it occurred in a class of working men taking 
their first lessons in English in Mariners’ Temple, 
New York, in the summer of 1913. Their reading 
lesson one evening was the story of Abraham’s 
sending his servant to the old country to find a 
good wife for Isaac. 

At ten o’clock they reached the question, “ Will 
you give Rebekah to be the wife of Isaac? ” It was 
long past the hour for closing the lesson, but the 
men refused to go home unless the teacher would 
first tell them whether or not she married him. 
The story was as new to them as if it had been 
printed for the first time in the evening paper of 
that day. 



TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 23 


The beginning is made most naturally with Old 
Testament stories devoted to affairs of life de¬ 
scribed in concrete terms. 

Carefully chosen passages expressed in modern 
terms, will lead directly on through a vocabulary of 
words whose meaning can be given through objects 
and signs until the pupil is able to grasp the deeper 
significance of New Testament stories. 

The parables of Jesus through which He revealed 
the very heart of His Gospel are so closely allied to 
the activities of common life and so wonderfully 
simple in expression that for the purpose of teach¬ 
ing English, they far surpass all modern composi¬ 
tions. 

“Black-board work” and merely oral teaching 
are inadequate and unsatisfactory in first les¬ 
sons. 

With the foreigner, as with ourselves, the acquir¬ 
ing of a new language is sufficiently difficult to 
require the advantage of uniformly printed pages 
rather than that the pupil be subjected to the be¬ 
wilderment resulting from a study of the irregu¬ 
larities of personal handwriting. 

An illustrated lesson book to be the property of 
the pupil, and to be used for study between lesson 
hours, is of prime importance. It should be in 
clear print, with illustrations adapted for use with 



24 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


adjacent text and with plain standard script to be 
copied in lesson writing. 

Method of Work 

In order to demonstrate a method it is necessary 
to consider a definite lesson. 

A “ First Lesson ” which has been used success¬ 
fully hundreds of times in teaching English to non- 
English-speaking people in America and in other 
lands, is this: 

* Lesson 1 

Abraham the Immigrant 

A man named Abraham lived in a country of the 
East. 

God said to Abraham, “ Go out of your country 
to a country that I will show you. 

“ I will help you. You shall help people.” 

East West North South 

I You 

I. Begin with “ I ” and “ You.” The teacher, 
indicating himself, says, “ I, I, I,” slowly, emphat¬ 
ically, watching the face of the pupil to catch his 
recognition of the meaning of the word. 

Then, indicating the pupil, the teacher pro¬ 
nounces “ You, you, you.” 

♦"Stories and Songs for Teaching English.” Fleming H. 
Revell Company. 



TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 25 


By signs, indicating the lips, lead the pupil to 
pronounce “ I,” and “ you.” 

When the words are understood and have been 
pronounced, indicate them on the lesson page. Let 
the pupil find “ I ” and “ you ” wherever they ap¬ 
pear on the page. 

II. Next the teacher may pronounce his own 
name, saying, “ I am named Smith. How are you 
named? ” 

With the help of repetition and gesture the mean¬ 
ing of the question becomes clear and the pupil is 
led to pronounce his own name. The teacher re¬ 
peats the name given by the pupil; for example, 
Kodinsky, and leads the pupil to say, “ I am named 
Kodinsky.” 

As soon as its meaning is clear, indicate the word 
u named ” in the lesson book. It is important that 
speaking and reading should be taught together so 
that the printed page may be at hand to confirm 
and fix the memory of the lesson in intervals be¬ 
tween lessons. 

III. After “ I,” “ you,” and “ named ” have been 
mastered, teach the points of the compass, requir¬ 
ing the pupil to pronounce correctly, “ North, 
South, East, West,” indicating the directions as the 
words are pronounced. 

The teacher should be sure to know the local 



26 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


points of the compass before beginning the lesson 
and to be able to indicate them without the slight¬ 
est hesitation. The pupil’s success in some critical 
time may depend on his ability to understand a 
direction to go east or south or west rather than 
north. 

Teach the printed names of the points of the com¬ 
pass. Then turn to the map and teach directions 
there. 

IV. Show America on the map. Say, “ I show 
you our country, America. We live in America. 
Where did you live? ” Do not try to explain your 
question by adding more words. That would only 
add confusion. Eepeat the same words slowly, 
distinctly, indicating on the map the country which 
you suppose to be that from which the pupil has 
come, and asking, “ Did you live in Russia? Italy? ” 
etc., until response is given. Then secure from the 
pupil the statement, “ I lived in Russia,” or “ I 
lived in Italy,” or whatever country was the home 
of the pupil. 

Then call attention on the map to the fact that 
America is a country of the West. Russia, or 
Italy, or Greece is a country of the East. 

The map study unfailingly brings closer ac¬ 
quaintance between teacher and pupil and pro¬ 
motes mutual understanding. Teach “ lived ” 



TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 27 


and “ country ” and “ show ” on the printed 
pjge. 

7 . Let the pupil read the first sentence of the 
lesson. Use the words of the sentence in conversa¬ 
tion, as, “ How was the man named? ” Kequire a 
full sentence in reply, as, “ The man was named 
Abraham.” 

“Where did Abraham live?” “Abraham lived 
in a country of the East.” 

VI. In teaching the second sentence the teacher 
walks out of the room, saying slowly, distinctly, “ I 
go out.” 

If the pupil seems not to understand, repeat the 
act and the words, watching for indication of com¬ 
prehension on his part. Then say to the pupil, 
“ You go out,” and require him to go and return. 
When it is certain that the words “go out” are 
understood, indicate them on the printed page. 

VII. In teaching “ help,” direct the pupil to lift 
a table or some other heavy article of furniture, and 
say, “I will help you,” and then help to lift the 
burden. 

VIII. Indicate as “people,” the man, woman 
and children in a picture. Should several pupils 
be included in the class, indicate “ I,” and one of 
the pupils as “ you,” and the others as “ people.” 

IX. Let the pupil review the entire lesson. 



28 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


Watch, the faces. They are your reading book. 
You must be their dictionary. Be quick in respond¬ 
ing to their need for further help. Use short words 
and few. Speak slowly. Articulate distinctly. 
When you find an inclination to make two syllables 
of “ named ” draw a pencil through the “ e ” tempo¬ 
rarily, by way of indicating the correct pronuncia¬ 
tion. Volumes of verbal explanation at this stage 
of advancement would fail to convey the meaning 
which is fully expressed by the single pencil stroke. 

Be prompt in recognizing success. “ Good! ” 
soon will be understood as expressing commenda¬ 
tion. When Lesson I has been mastered, the 
teacher’s “Good! You speak English!” “You 
read English! ” will give zest to new effort. 

X. Distribute blank books and pencils and re¬ 
quire the script which is printed at the bottom of 
the page * from which this lesson is quoted, to be 
read and copied. Be sure that they understand the 
script. 

Speaking and reading should be associated with 
writing to secure definite and permanent mastery of 
the lesson. 


Grading 

Pupils beginning together in one class manifest 
different degrees of ability to advance. 

* “ Stories and Songs for Teaching English.” 



TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 29 


As conversational ability develops, we some¬ 
times find that within one class of beginners in 
English we have included pupils who were high 
school or college students in their native land, with 
others who are entirely illiterate. 

In justice to all it is necessary to grade such 
classes as early and as frequently as possible, as¬ 
signing the various grades to different teach¬ 
ers. 


Who Can Do the Teaching? 

Some of the most successful teachers of English 
to foreigners know no language but English. We 
have seen classes composed of representatives of 
six nationalities in each class, no member of the 
class knowing a word of English at the beginning 
of the lessons and all making excellent progress 
under the direction of teachers knowing no word of 
any language but English. 

Interest, determination, and sympathetic pa¬ 
tience, with thorough preparation of each lesson, 
will enable any one of ordinary intelligence to 
render this service to our non-English-speaking 
neighbors and, through them, to the community, to 
the nation, and to the Kingdom of God. 

After nine weeks of lessons, three evenings a 
week, we have found pupils able to engage in 



30 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


ordinary conversation, and to take Biography, His¬ 
tory or an elementary book on Civics, like, for 
instance, “ Civics for Americans in the Making,” 
by Ann a A. Plass, “Americanization and Citizen¬ 
ship,” by Hanson Hart Webster, or the “ Standard 
Short Course for Evening Schools,” by William 
Estabrook Chancellor. 

This last includes not only definite preparation 
for passing examination for naturalization, but also 
something of elementary Mathematics, Grammar, 
American History, etc. 

We all appreciate the importance of acquaintance 
with these subjects. At what stage of advancement 
shall they be introduced? What material shall we 
use first in teaching English to non-English-speak¬ 
ing people? 

That which we teach first will go deeper, stay 
longer and mean more than anything which we 
may be able to introduce later. 

The mastery of even a very limited vocabulary of 
words in common use will lead the pupil to ac¬ 
quaint himself with the terms needed in connection 
with work and wages and food and shelter and 
clothing. 

But if we spend our whole opportunity for 
service in imparting terms relating merely to the 
material side of life we have no guarantee that 



TEACHING ENGLISH TO ADULTS 31 


through these the pupil will find his way to endur¬ 
ing riches. 

In the glare of a continent aflame we have read 
more clearly than ever before the bankruptcy which 
results from neglect of spiritual values. 

We emphasize the importance of Bible stories 
for the first lessons in English for two reasons: 

1 . In the words of a pupil in one of our classes, 
“ Words stay in head better if come in stories.” 

The story form appeals to the imagination, ar¬ 
rests attention and is held by the memory. The 
lessons become a recreation rather than a task. 

2 . Pupils eager to learn English and indifferent 
in regard to the choice of lesson material have been 
profoundly influenced by the ideals embodied in 
simple Bible stories. We know that in many cases 
adult pupils have had no previous acquaintance 
with Biblical material, and except through its use 
in first lessons in English they might never have 
come in contact with that literature which, accord¬ 
ing to the verdict of history, has been more potent 
in modern civilization than any other body of litera¬ 
ture that the world ever has known. 



Ill 


CHUECH NEIGHBOEING 

E. P. P. CLAXTON, United States Com¬ 
missioner of Education, in “ Missiles for 



Methodist Minute Men,” says, “ The Chris¬ 
tian Church is the greatest agency that we have for 
Americanization.” To what extent is this agency 
functioning effectively in the matter of securing the 
use of the language of America by all the people 
who, as residents, are making their contribution to 
our national life? 

In the autumn of 1919 when a Congressional 
Committee had been sent to Pittsburgh to learn the 
view-point of the employees in steel industries who 
at that time were on strike the prominent feature 
of their report to the Congress of the United States 
was inability to learn the view-point of the employed 
men because, “more than fifty per cent, of them 
cannot speak or understand the English language.” 

Have the churches squarely faced that fact with 
its implications? 

Eecognition of the fact that the ability of work¬ 
men to understand and speak English will lessen 
delay in production and diminish “labor turn- 


32 j 


CHURCH NEIGHBORING 


33 


over ” due to accidents and disablement, has led in 
many industrial plants to the establishment of 
classes for teaching the English names of tools, 
the terms used in directing labor, in warning of 
danger from machinery, and in handling industrial 
products. 

In domestic service many a young woman has 
been taught what one who had received such teach¬ 
ing aptly characterized as “ kitchen English,”—the 
English needed in communication between her em¬ 
ployer and herself in securing the accomplishment 
of her daily tasks. 

Governmental requirements for education in 
English contemplate such an amount of teaching 
and learning as will enable the pupil to understand 
and undertake the responsibilities of citizenship in 
the United States of America. What are the 
churches doing in teaching non-English-speaking 
people the language which will enable them to 
come into vital relationship with the general body 
of Christian men and women in America, adding 
their strength in cooperative service for the world? 

The broad basis for distinctly Christian work 
which includes the teaching of anything which may 
be taught in public schools and by other govern¬ 
mental agencies, anything which may be taught by 
philanthropic and community agencies, and in addi- 



34 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


tion to these, the distinctively religious truths 
which have inspired the highest ideals of indi¬ 
viduals and of nations, offers a unique opportunity 
for service to the churches of our day. 

The precepts and the example of Jesus inspire 
appreciation of men and women of alien nation¬ 
ality. He made a foreigner, a Samaritan, the hero 
of His story which for all time describes “ The 
Good Neighbor.” 

It was to a foreigner, a Samaritan woman, that 
He gave His suggestive teaching concerning “ Eter¬ 
nal Life.” The recorder of this teaching, in his 
surprise at the Teacher’s choice of a pupil, makes 
the significant statement that “ Jews have no deal¬ 
ings with Samaritans.” It would seem that even 
in the first century of the Christian era the teach¬ 
ing of foreigners was a subject of interest. 

Whether or not there was current discussion of 
their degree of appreciation for services rendered 
them we do not know, but it is recorded in the story 
of the cleansing of ten lepers that “ one of them, a 
Samaritan, when he saw that he was healed, turned 
back and fell on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving 
him thanks.” Jesus answering said, “ Were there 
none found that returned to give glory to God but 
this stranger? ” 

The First Church in Jerusalem, not ignoring the 



CHURCH NEIGHBORING 


35 


example of its Founder, ordained “ seven men of 
good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,” to 
minister to foreigners in the community. Greeks 
were especially named in this connection. 

“ The Problem of the Down-town Church ” in 
many a city of to-day could be solved by Christian 
neighboring in the densely populated districts in 
which such churches are stranded. 

Assuming, carelessly, that “ They all go to their 
own churches,” we have not realized that a large 
proportion of New Americans, coming to us from 
countries in which State and Church are united, 
have considered that their farewell to native land 
included both, and have made no approach to any 
religious organization or service in this country. 

Our fear of being charged with “ proselyting ” 
(whatever that long word may mean), has pre¬ 
vented our offering to share with them what is most 
precious in our own lives. 

An Italian woman, a mother of nine children, at 
the end of her third lesson in English, looking wist¬ 
fully at her teacher, asked: 

“ Lady, you Protestante? ” 

“ Yes,” responded the teacher, “And you?” They 
both waited while the Italian woman was struggling 
to find English words expressing her meaning. 
Finally she said slowly: 



36 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


“ Sometimes me, my girl, in dark, go stand by 
church., hear sing.” She indicated a church build¬ 
ing near her home. 

“ Why do you not go in? ” 

Lifting her shoulders and spreading her hands 
in an expression of impossibility she replied, 
“ Know nobody. Everybody look strange at us.” 

No one in the Church of Jesus Christ can ap¬ 
propriately “ look strange at ” one who comes with 
hungry heart longing for neighborly fellowship. 

Chambers of Commerce, Public Schools, Li¬ 
braries, Settlements, Industrial Plants, all are able 
to make valuable contributions to the campaign for 
the promotion of neighborliness through teaching 
the common language of our country, but no other 
organization can take the place of the churches in 
providing adequate motive and inspiration for such 
service. It is a service bringing rich compensations 
to those who engage in it. 

An undergraduate college man who had promised 
to teach English to a class of working men said 
when he saw that the lesson-book offered was com¬ 
posed of Biblical material, “ I cannot use that. 
There are so many different theories of inspiration 
of everything that I don’t know what I believe. 
Having refused again and again to take a Sunday- 
school class, I surely cannot undertake to teach 



CHURCH NEIGHBORING 


37 


religious theories to these hard-headed men of a 
dozen different races, creeds, and no creeds.” 

“ You are not asked to teach theories or creeds,” 
was the reply. “ This lesson material is composed 
largely of the parables of Jesus, the stories which 
He told to multitudes of people concerning the 
common activities of every-day life. It is certain 
that in telling them He did not teach theories or 
creeds, because His own disciples used to come to 
Him afterward asking Him to ‘ Tell us the mean¬ 
ing of the parable.’ 

“ Follow His method. Give the story. Leave it 
to make its own impression, as He did. When you 
have made sure that your pupils can understand, 
speak, read and write every word in the lesson, 
using each word in direct conversation, your work 
with that lesson will be done.” He undertook the 
work on that basis and carried it steadily through 
nine weeks, two evenings a week. 

A year later, speaking to a company of teachers 
concerning this experience, he said, “ Whatever it 
may have done for those foreign-born men, it did 
more for me than anything else that ever has come 
into my life. Seeing, week by week, what they 
needed, I learned to face what I need. To-day, I 
know where I stand.” 

A year later he entered as student in a theological 



38 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 

seminary, and later became a missionary in Asia, 
determining, as he said, to invest his life “ where the 
need is greatest.” 

Recent years have revealed unknown powers of 
resourcefulness, of leadership, of heroism, among 
young women and young men who had been living 
lives of conventional routine. If the churches will 
rally their young people to the task, giving them a 
degree of responsibility proportioned to their 
powers, the slogan,—“A Literate America in 1921 ” 
may easily be realized. 

When it shall become possible for all our people 
to understand and speak one language then the way 
will be open for the communication and the inter¬ 
pretation of those spiritual ideals without which 
our national life would not be worth living or worth 
perpetuating. 

The Census report for 1920 is awaited eagerly for 
statistics of our polyglot population. There is 
reason to expect that foreign-born women will soon 
outnumber foreign-born men in America. It was 
so in some localities before the war. 

Even as early as 1902, the Research Bureau of 
the Federation of Churches and Religious Organiza¬ 
tions of New York City reported that, “ throughout 
Manhattan, as a whole, foreign-born women exceed 
foreign-born men by 1,298,” and that “ in Brook- 



CHURCH NEIGHBORING 


39 


lyn the excess of women over men is even greater 
than in Manhattan.” 

The Rhode Island Bureau of Industrial Statistics 
reported in 1909 that women between the ages of 
fifteen and twenty-nine exceeded the number of 
men of the same ages in that State by 1,902, al¬ 
most 2,000. 

It seems inevitable that the disparity in num¬ 
bers will be even greater in the immediate future. 
Native American women are facing a very large 
opportunity for service in neighboring foreign-born 
women now in America, and those who will come. 
It is reported that 5,000,000 American women were 
knitting and making surgical dressings for army 
men in 1918. 

As the bereft women of other lands turn to our 
shores in the days immediately before us will the 
women of the churches, who have learned to “ speed 
up ” in the tasks of war-time, hasten to meet the no 
less urgent task of knitting into unity the scattered 
threads of community life, making it possible 
through common speech and common understand¬ 
ing for us all to work together for the good of 
each, and enabling each one to work for the good 
of all? 

Christian neighboring must be personal and must 
develop personality; not personality isolated, segre- 



40 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


gated from community life, but personality respon¬ 
sive, articulate, cooperative with others. 

An intelligent young woman, a college graduate, 
desiring to fit herself for Americanization work, 
was given a comprehensive definition of Americani¬ 
zation as published by a well-known organization. 
After studying it for a time in silence she said: 
“ I had not realized that it would be so intricate, so 
complicated. I fear that I must turn to something 
else.” After being persuaded to ignore the defini¬ 
tion for a time and to enter into neighborly rela¬ 
tions with one non-English-speaking woman, teach¬ 
ing that woman to speak, read, and write the lan¬ 
guage of her adopted country, she became an en¬ 
thusiastic and successful worker. One day early 
in 1918, offering to give lessons to a foreign-born 
woman knowing little English, she met this re¬ 
sponse : 

“ Want no America language. Want no America 
lady. Hate America! Want only America bring 
back my man.” The woman’s eyes were swollen 
with weeping. She looked the picture of despair as 
she sat in a rear room of a shabby tenement with a 
puny little baby in her arms and bemoaned the 
drafting of her husband into the army, leaving her 
with “ no friend this side of the sea.” The teacher’s 
reply, condensed from many conversations, was this 



CHURCH NEIGHBORING 


4i 


in substance: “I am your neighbor. Neighbors 
must be friends. I come from a league of neigh¬ 
bors. We all are your friends. We are with you 
in your trouble. We stand together. We can be 
better friends if we can talk more together. If you 
understand me, if I understand you, we can do more 
for each other.” The magic of Christian neighbor¬ 
liness won the victory in this case and in many 
others. It was not all accomplished in a moment. 
Persistent tact, genuine neighborliness which could 
not be vanquished met the need. 

With lessons in English came steadily growing 
understanding and appreciation. Then came some 
degree of comprehension of the meaning of the war 
in which her man and our men were engaged. Then 
came ability to read the letters which her man had 
learned to write, then ability to write her own letter 
in reply. All through was a deepening conscious¬ 
ness of the love and care of a Heavenly Father 
whose children are neighbors and friends together. 

The story of months of experience condensed in 
these few sentences can give no suggestion of the 
interest which develops in the progress of the work. 
As Jesus was ready to give His highest messages to 
an audience of one by the well-side or to a timid soul 
who came to Him at night, so the Neighbors League 
worker, following His method, will be ready to begin 
informally with a class of one and to give to that 
one such service as to justify increase of numbers. 



IV 


COOPERATION WITH DAILY VACATION 
SCHOOLS 

D AILY Vacation Bible Schools for children 
in summer time have been meeting grow¬ 
ing appreciation during the last twelve 
years. The number of such schools has steadily 
multiplied. 

The great banner inscribed with the words 
“ Daily Vacation Bible School,” conspicuously dis¬ 
played in front of the meeting place brings a throng 
of boys and girls as regular attendants in the 
crowded sections of our cities. Teaching English 
to the parents of these children would supplement 
the work of Vacation Schools by dealing with the 
home side of child welfare. 

Summer is an especially favorable time for neigh¬ 
boring New Americans. In normal times immigra¬ 
tion is larger in spring and summer than in other 
seasons. Newly arrived immigrants are more 
eager to know America at first hand than those 
who have been here long enough to have become 
42 


DAILY VACATION SCHOOLS 


43 


settled in colonies of their own people and to have 
found channels of life and work through which 
they can “ get along,” with fewest adaptations to 
new customs. Even for those who have become 
settled in America, the longer daylight of summer 
time, release from the rigors of winter weather, 
enabling them to go out and in with greater free¬ 
dom, the open doors which give readier access to 
family life, the “ slack work ” in some employ¬ 
ments—all these conditions favor the beginning of 
neighborly advances. The parents whose children 
attend the Daily Vacation Bible School generally 
are ready to welcome teachers for themselves. 

The fact that evening classes for foreigners in 
connection with public schools usually close in 
early spring to reopen in late autumn gives excep¬ 
tionally wide opportunity for using this interval 
in making helpful acquaintance with our non- 
English-speaking people. 

The failure of immigrant parents to understand 
the language used by their children explains the 
fact that from eighty to ninety per cent, of the 
children found in juvenile courts in our country 
are children of the foreign-born. Records show 
that the foreign-born parents, notwithstanding 
their inability to read laws and prohibitions, are 
not more criminal than American-born parents. 



44 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


Delinquencies on the part of the children in the 
great majority of cases can he traced directly to 
loss of parental authority and influence due to the 
lack of mutually understood language and ideals. 

In public schools the children readily learn the 
English language. In classes they stand shoulder 
to shoulder with American-born children of their 
own age and not infrequently surpass them in 
quickness of perception and in rate of progress. 

They go home to a mother who does not look or 
talk or act or think like “ Teacher.” She knows 
nothing of this wonderful America which is filling 
the horizon of all their thoughts and dreams and 
ambitions. It is easy for them to reach the conclu¬ 
sion that any companions using the language of 
America must be more desirable, more “ advanced,” 
than a mother and a father who fail to understand 
the language of the country in which they are living. 

A public-school teacher said recently: “ The 
brightest boy in my school is going wrong. If his 
parents and I could cooperate with each other we 
might save him, but when I go to confer with them 
this boy is the only interpreter between us. Will 
you not go, or get some one else to go into that 
home to teach English to the father and mother, 
and so help to save the boy? ” 

Young women especially trained for this service 



DAILY VACATION SCHOOLS 


45 


and making it their vocation will be able to open 
the way for a multitude of volunteer workers who 
regularly will devote a certain portion of time to 
neighboring and teaching foreign-born women. 
“ Regularly ” is the important word in this con¬ 
nection. 

A teacher of English to foreign-born adults being 
congratulated on the large number of volunteer 
helpers enrolled for her district replied, “ Their 
irregularity drives me almost to despair. They 
enlist and work enthusiastically until some counter 
attraction lures them. Sometimes it is an excep¬ 
tionally fine entertainment; sometimes the visit of a 
friend or some other social engagement which leads 
them to ignore the obligations which they have as¬ 
sumed. They seem to consider it a light matter to 
break an engagement with a non-English-speaking 
pupil but it takes a long time to restore the con¬ 
fidence destroyed by an experience of that kind.” 
To the non-English-speaking pupils it is impossible 
to explain in detail the reason of the failure even 
when the leader is notified in time to attempt ex¬ 
planations. With their limited vocabulary they 
use few words in stating the facts to each other as 
they see them: u She say come. Not come. She 
lie.” 

The short ugly word which closes their state- 



46 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


ment of the case is the word which characterizes 
their impression of the teacher whom they had be¬ 
gun to trust. 

Their days are full of work. It is not easy for 
them to make time for lessons. Engagements once 
made with them should be kept if possible at what¬ 
ever cost of rearranging plans with friends who are 
able to understand reasons for necessary changes. 
Experiences of this kind are due more to lack of 
understanding of the delicacy of relations involved 
than to deliberate ignoring of moral obligations. 
It is important that we guard against them steadily 
in advance and prevent their recurrence if possible. 

We need the volunteer teachers. The volunteer 
teachers need the experience which comes through 
this type of service. 

An army of native-born American women coming 
voluntarily into neighborly relations with foreign- 
born women, teaching them the language and the 
ideals of America, would do more to solve “ The 
Americanization Problem ” than any other possible 
agency. 

Willingness to begin with one pupil often is the 
key to success with a whole neighborhood. When 
one woman in a tenement begins to learn English 
the woman across the hall comes in, the woman up¬ 
stairs comes down, and a class makes itself. A 



DAILY VACATION SCHOOLS 


47 


little later, with the growth of acquaintance and 
confidence, the class may be moved to a more ade¬ 
quate meeting place, where the babies may be cared 
for separately, leaving the mothers free to devote 
themselves to lessons. A church, a vacant store, a 
tent, any place in which a Vacation Bible School 
may be held in the morning, is a suitable place for 
afternoon or evening classes for adults. 

A woman with a little baby in her arms trying 
to learn English while two little ones were clinging 
to her skirts and demanding possession of her book 
turned eagerly to her teacher with the question, 
“ You have place, I go, you? ” Slowly summoning 
her vocabulary of English words, she explained, 
“ Maybe, evening, my man keep babies, I go your 
place, learn more.” 

A little store in the neighborhood was rented 
with an adjoining room in which “ babies ” can be 
cared for while mothers are taught the English 
lessons which mean so much to them. “Now, 
maybe,” one woman said exultantly, “when my 
boy, man, he not think Mother, dunce.” 

The unfailing interest of children in Bible stories 
has been recognized by teachers in Vacation 
Schools. To enable the parents of these children to 
read such stories in English is to supplement the 
work of the school by creating a new bond of com- 



48 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


mon interest and sympathy between parents and 
children. 

In a Christmas entertainment in which both New 
Americans and older Americans participated, I 
have seen mothers born in Russia, in Verona, in 
Sicily, reciting responsively in English with their 
adolescent sons some of the noblest passages of our 
Scriptures. 

Many of those who come to us from across the 
sea are from countries in which the Bible has not 
been an open book, and in which they have had 
little opportunity to judge of its value. Professor 
J. R. Green, the great historian of the English peo¬ 
ple, says of the making of modern England: “ No 
greater moral change ever passed over a nation 
than passed over England during the years which 
parted the middle of the reign of Elizabeth from 
the meeting of the Long Parliament. England be¬ 
came the people of a book, and that book was the 
Bible. . . . Far greater than its effect on 

literature or social phrase was the effect of the Bible 
on the character of the people at large. ... Its 
effect in this way, however dispassionately we ex¬ 
amine it, was simply amazing. The whole temper 
of the nation was changed. A new conception of 
life and of man superseded the old. A new moral 
and religious impulse spread through every class.” 



DAILY VACATION SCHOOLS 


49 


This is the dispassionate verdict, not of an ec¬ 
clesiastic but of a clear-eyed historian of national 
life. Does America need to-day less than England 
needed three hundred years ago, “ a new moral and 
religious impulse ” ? 

That new religious consciousness which the great 
historian describes as coming into England with 
the coming of the Bible in the common speech of 
the people was strongly dominant in those who 
crossed the sea to make the new England and the 
new nation on these shores. To-day the old Pil¬ 
grim stock is fading out and is being replaced by 
people who never have known the experience which 
Professor Green so vividly describes. To them, 
even as to the people of old England three hundred 
years ago, the teachings of the Bible in the speech 
of every-day life would fall u on ears which custom 
had not deadened to their force and beauty.” 



V 


COOPERATION WITH PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
AND LIBRARIES 

R ECENT legislation providing for coopera¬ 
tion “ with the several States in the educa¬ 
tion of illiterates or other persons unable 
to understand, speak, read, or write the English 
language gives hope of the dawning of a new day 
in which our polyglot people may become able to 
think together, speak together, and act together for 
the common good.” 

The new educational opportunity involves new 
opportunity and new obligation to demonstrate the 
democratic, the neighborly, spirit essential in win¬ 
ning and holding the love and loyalty of all, 
whether “Americans by chance or Americans by 
choice.” 

Duly elected legislators in the halls of Congress 
may write our laws on the pages of statute books. 
It is the electors at home who have power to re¬ 
write those laws in the hearts of the people. 

Our public schools, like all governmental 
50 


PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES 51 


agencies, can have only that degree of efficiency 
which we, the people, give to them. Being “ of the 
people, for the people,” and supported “ by the peo¬ 
ple,” they should be made to represent increasingly 
the highest educational ideals of our most intelli¬ 
gent and public-spirited citizens. 

I11 respect especially to the education of non-Eng¬ 
lish-speaking adults all provisions made through 
our public school system leave much to be supple¬ 
mented by personal influence and effort. The pro¬ 
visions of the bill recently passed by our Senate 
(the “ Kenyon Bill ”), are not available within any 
State in wffiich the required conditions have not 
been accepted, including the making available for 
the purposes of this Act “ an amount equal to that 
allotted to the State by the United States.” 

The people of each State face to-day a new oppor¬ 
tunity for interpreting “what America is to the 
man who lives here.” 

As the sums appropriated for carrying out the 
provisions of this Act are available chiefly for “ the 
payment of salaries of teachers, supervisors, or di¬ 
rectors of education, or for the preparation of 
teachers, supervisors, and directors of education,” 
large opportunity remains for the citizens of any 
State and of any community within any State to 
regulate the conditions under which the required 



52 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


u classes of instruction for not less than two hun¬ 
dred hours per annum ” shall be held. 

Is it true that in some communities in which 
“ Evening Classes for Adult Foreigners ” have been 
held, men and women who had spent the day in hard , 
manual labor have been expected to spend four > 
evenings a week learning English while wedged be- .* 
tween seats and desks adapted in size to the comfort r 
of small girls and boys? 

Is it true that teachers for these classes often 
have come to them so wearied from their daytime 
teaching as to be unable to do their best work for 
the evening classes? 

Is it true that many of the teachers have tried to 
use for adult men and women the same books and 
the same methods which they had been using in 
teaching children during the day? 

Is it true that notwithstanding all these unfavor¬ 
able conditions, evening classes for adult for- < 
eigners have been so crowded at the beginning of 
the season that teachers have found it impossible , 
to give to each pupil the amount of personal atten- } 
tion which each one of us requires in attempting to 
learn a new language? 

Is it true that the number of teachers provided 
has been insufficient to allow of necessary grading 
of classes, and that pupils of high-school and col- 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES 53 


lege education in their native lands have been held 
in the same classes with illiterates who could not 
make equal progress in learning English? 

Is it true that when attendance at the classes has 
decreased rapidly after the first few weeks we, with¬ 
out careful study of conditions, have been ready to 
nfer that the decrease was due to lack of desire for 
education on the part of pupils? 

What have we done by way of trying the effect of 
more favorable conditions? 

Would it be practicable through the influence of 
intelligent voters to increase the appropriations of 
money for schools for illiterate and non-English- 
speaking pupils and so to make more efficient 
service possible? 

If not, there still remains the open field for per¬ 
sonal work. There is large opportunity for private 
service in supplementing the work of the schools 
by teaching individuals or small groups of pupils 
whose home cares or occupational disadvantages 
prevent their regular attendance at public classes, 
3ven in communities in which such classes exist. 

In small towns, in rural districts, in outlying 
sections of cities, are great areas with non-English- 
speaking residents living isolated lives almost un¬ 
touched by the influence of American neighborli¬ 
ness. In the smaller community the relative need 



54 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


may be as great and tbe number of people with a 
vision of the importance of the work may be rela¬ 
tively less than in the large city. 

There can be no true Americanism which does 
not include understanding and use of the language 
of America. “ Neighboring ” is limited and greatly 
hampered until a vocabulary of mutually under¬ 
stood words can be acquired. But acquaintance 
with America’s language is a mere beginning of the 
process of becoming an American. 

What is most important is not that our people 
all become able to understand and pronounce the 
words of the English language. The strongest 
anarchists among us can do that. The kind of 
words which they incline to pronounce is a matter 
of more vital importance than their accent in pro¬ 
nunciation. What are we doing to influence the 
ideas and the ideals which their language lessons 
will enable them to express? 

To employ teachers of the abstract principles of 
democracy for our foreign-born residents while 
failing to demonstrate those principles in our per¬ 
sonal relations with them is to imperil their con¬ 
fidence not only in our personal sincerity but even 
in the validity of those ideals. 

To the man who has come across the sea to make 
his home with us, the words and the deeds of our 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES 55 


ancestors count far less than do the attitude and 
the spirit of those whom he finds representing what 
America is to-day. 

He, too, treasures the names of national heroes 
of the past, of a time when his native land had an 
honorable history. He has come to America in 
search of something better than his own land offers 
to-day. To him, at first, we native-born Americans 
are the exponents of that “ something better ” which 
he seeks. Who can measure the consequences of 
our failures to meet our unconscious responsibili¬ 
ties in that respect? 

In order to respond adequately to the question¬ 
ing spirit which they bring to us, we greatly need 
closer acquaintance with the ideas, the ideals, even 
the conventionalities, of the countries from which 
our new Americans have come. 

Recently a teacher of English to adult foreigners, 
making careful study of public schools, “ the most 
American of all our institutions,” reported the 
especially excellent Americanization work being 
done in a certain one of the schools, not only in 
class work but through recreational activities. 
Following is an extract from the report: 

“ The principal, in speaking of the social evening 
on Thursdays, mentioned among other things that 
here in the open center of the large basement room 



56 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


they have dancing, with music by a good orchestra. 
In order to make things pleasant they have groups 
of girls who had been ‘ trained to dance with the 
soldiers and so were not bashful ’ come in and dance 
with the men. (There are a great many more men 
than women in the school.) If one of these girls 
sees a man who looks lonesome and shy, she takes 
him to one side and teaches him to dance. Thus, 
as far as possible, every one is made to have a good 
time.” 

A little later, a Spanish speaking young man who 
applied for lessons in English was advised to enter 
this public school. He manifested a strong objec¬ 
tion to following the advice. His limited vocabu¬ 
lary in English precluded thorough discussion of 
the merits of the case, but his objection was based 
unmistakably on “ the dance.” It is clear that the 
public school program makers in this case, at least, 
had not considered adult non-English-speaking 
pupils as possible critics of American social life as 
represented in American schools. 

Any one familiar with conventional traditions 
and ideals of social life in Latin countries would 
readily understand the contrast between the custom 
described by the principal of this American public 
school and the ideas of propriety recognized in 
Spain, in Italy, and in Latin America. Any one 







PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES 57 


familiar with current social conditions in those 
countries cannot ignore the danger of even suggest¬ 
ing the possibility of lower standards here. To 
those who are unable to speak or to understand our 
words, our manner is capable of such interpretation 
as we would be least willing to allow. 

Our public schools will do even nobler work than 
they have done when our best men and women give 
time and thought to helping in the study and solu¬ 
tion of the problems which they steadily face. 

The public library is an invaluable supplement 
to the public school. Here, too, the New American 
needs the neighborly help of older Americans not 
only in leading the way from school to library, but 
in keeping library and school in close touch with 
each other. 

The chief value of the public library to New 
Americans is not indicated by the number of vol¬ 
umes or of periodicals which it offers in foreign 
languages, but by its facilities for promoting read¬ 
ing in the English language. Reading books graded 
to meet the ability of those who are learning the 
language, and placed where they can easily be found 
by those unaccustomed to catalogues and index 
cards, will be invaluable. 

The citizen who is a good neighbor will be glad 
to suggest to librarians books desirable for this pur- 



58 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


pose. As a good neighbor to native-born as well as 
to New Americans, he will ask that the library be 
well supplied with books and periodicals providing 
information concerning the history, conditions and 
customs of countries from which foreign-born resi¬ 
dents of the community have come. 

We who always have lived in America would be 
better neighbors to those who have come recently 
if our mental horizons could be widened to an un¬ 
derstanding and appreciation of the life of other 
lands as well as of our own. 

Are Italians numerous in the community? Then 
native-born Americans cannot afford to be ignorant 
of Italian history, tradition and art. It is not dif¬ 
ficult to find books written in popular style which 
will enable readers of English to gain appreciation 
of the national qualities of a people who, in their 
darkest days, “ never became barbarian.’’ The 
poorest of them carries in his heart a love of beauty 
which the typical Anglo-Saxon may study in vain 
to acquire. 

Are Bohemians among our neighbors? Have we 
realized that for centuries they have been world 
leaders in education as well as in bravery? In re¬ 
gard to their spiritual ideals, it is necessary only 
to call attention to the fact that through the leader¬ 
ship of John Huss they were Protestants one hun- 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES 59 


dred years before Luther’s day, and that the Czecho¬ 
slovaks still are known as “ Biblers ” by people of 
adjacent countries. 

Do their American neighbors know that the Finns 
are among the most literate, the most progressive 
of all nationalities? Have we wished in vain to 
visit Greece, or, at least, to become acquainted with 
Greek literature? To an unusual degree, the mod¬ 
ern Greeks, according to Professor Fairchild, have 
retained the characteristics and the loyalties of 
their ancestors, making them interesting neighbors 
to those who seek their acquaintance. 

What can we say of Russians? Strength and 
idealism are the terms which come instinctively to 
our minds in connection with the name. No people 
are more worthy of study than these sturdy men 
and women of that dark land groping so blindly, 
often so mistakenly, toward what seems to them to 
be light. 



VI 


CONCERNING BOOKS FOR NEW AND OLD 
AMERICANS 

F a multitude of books of “First Lessons 



in English for Adult Foreigners,” pub¬ 


lished in recent years, choose the simplest. 
They should not be books for children. Even the 
most illiterate of our foreign-born adults who have 
the vision and the ambition to seek in America for 
something better than their native lands have given 
them will welcome ideas as well as words in their 
first lessons in English. Eyes unused to following 
closely printed lines need clear type, good illustra¬ 
tions, and standard plain script for copying. 

Make the choice of text-books in connection with 
choice of pupils. “A First Reader for Foreigners,” 
by Mary F. Sharpe, is especially attractive to 
classes of women. 

The “Foreigner’s Guide to English,” by Azniv 
Beshgeturian, would be preferred usually by men. 

In teaching Civics, when the pupils have acquired 
so large a vocabulary as to make that possible, the 
little book on “Americanization and Citizenship,” 
by Hanson Hart Webster, will be found valuable. 

“ Plain Facts for Future Citizens,” by Mary F. 


60 


BOOKS FOR NEW AND OLD AMERICANS 61 


Sharpe, or “ Civics for Americans in the Making,” 
by Anna Plass, could be understood at an earlier 
stage of advancement. 

In preparation for that broader citizenship, in¬ 
cluding definite teaching of The Ten Command¬ 
ments, The Golden Rule, The Law of Love, The 
Beatitudes, The Lord’s Prayer and other Biblical 
material, not so much has yet been put into the 
form of lesson material for adults who are making 
their first acquaintance with the English language. 

Yet no man or woman who is unacquainted with 
that Biblical material which is the source of our 
national ideals can be a genuinely cultivated Amer¬ 
ican in all that the term involves. 

“ Stories and Songs for Teaching English,” by 
Mary Clark Barnes, is a book of “ First Lessons in 
English,” composed of Biblical material, and in¬ 
cludes “ Suggestions to Teachers.” 

“ Makers of America,” by Emma Lilian Dana, a 
collection of biographical sketches, may follow the 
study books. 

At the Panama Congress, including representa¬ 
tives of twenty-one Republics, meeting together in 
1916 for conference concerning the welfare of their 
respective countries, a Judge of the Supreme Court 
of a Latin American country publicly called atten¬ 
tion to the rich heritage of English-speaking people 



62 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


in a literature “ saturated with Biblical suggestion, 
allusion and illustration.” 

Mentioning the lack of this element in the classic 
literature of some other peoples, he attributed to 
this difference in popular literature, the difference 
in life. 

In teaching New Americans to read as well as to 
speak the English language we are opening to them 
the richest treasury which we possess, our price¬ 
less literature. 

We shall be poor Neighbors to them if we do not 
acquaint ourselves with the best features of the life 
and history of the countries from which they have 
come. 

Czechoslovakia has representatives among us who 
have carried in their hearts during all the years of 
their residence among us the convictions, the aspira¬ 
tions, which have had enthusiastic demonstration 
by their leaders since early in 1915 . 

“ Bohemia and the Czechs,” by Will S. Monroe, 
gives us some acquaintance with the history of these 
wonderful people. 

The little booklet, “ The Czechoslovak State,” by 
Charles Pergler, Commissioner of the Czechoslovak 
Republic in the United States, published in 1919 , 
supplements interestingly the volume by Mr. 
Monroe. 



BOOKS FOR NEW AND OLD AMERICANS 63 

u Our Slavic Fellow Citizens,” by Emily Greene 
Balch, is so well known that its mention recalls its 
interest and its value. 

“ Finland To-day,” by George Renwick, published 
in 1911 , shows the forces at work in the native 
land of some of our most valuable citizens. 

“ The Immigration Problem,” by Jenks and 
Lauck, is invaluable for reliable statistical informa¬ 
tion. “ The Puritan in England, Holland and 
America,” by Douglas Campbell, indicates our in¬ 
debtedness to Holland as well as to England for 
some of our cherished ideals. 

“ Hungary and its People,” by Louis Felberman, 
gives vivid pictures of modern life in addition to 
sketches of ancient history which help us to under¬ 
stand modern developments in that country. 

Lest we lose ourselves in reading and thinking of 
old-world nationalities and forget the representa¬ 
tives of those nationalities among us to-day, it is 
well to turn to the growing literature which intro¬ 
duces us to the personalities and the experiences of 
some of the men and women who are with us as 
New Americans. 

Have we all read, “ From Alien to Citizen,” by 
Dr. Edward A. Steiner? Have we read his “ The 
Immigrant Tide—Its Ebb and its Flow,” u On the 
Trail of the Immigrant,” and u The Broken Wall ”? 
Have we read Ci The Promised Land,” by Mary An- 
tin, and “ Sons of Italy,” by Antonio Mangano? 



64 NEIGHBORING NEW AMERICANS 


Of more recent books, “An American in tbe Mak¬ 
ing,” by M. E. Ravage, and “ Out of tbe Shadow,” 
by Rose Cohen, are among the most vivid and 
valuable for us. 

The revelations of racial and personal character¬ 
istics given in these and in an increasing number of 
books written by our New Americans make it im¬ 
possible for us even to think of “ these foreigners ” 
without discrimination. Hidden under rough ex¬ 
teriors among us to-day are men and women poten¬ 
tially able to do more for America than any one of 
us can do individually. It may be that the largest 
personal contribution to the life of our time and of 
future times which some of us can make will be 
through opening doors of communication between 
foreign-born and native-born residents in order to 
make possible that “mutual giving and taking of 
contributions from both newer and older Amer¬ 
icans in the interest of the common weal,” which is 
essential to unity in our national life. 

Let us take for our symbol, not the brazen melt¬ 
ing pot, but a living tree with many ingrafted 
stocks organically related to each other, sharing a 
common life, bearing various fruits, differing in 
foliage, no two leaves exactly alike, but all com¬ 
bining to provide shelter and refreshment for the 
world. 



Reprintedfrom “ Americanization,** for November, igig. 


FOR STUDY OF THE RACES 

At the Harvard summer school of 1919, Mr. John J. 
Mahoney, in connection with his course in Americaniza¬ 
tion, appointed a committee to consider the racial back¬ 
grounds of the immigrants to this country. The bibli¬ 
ography given below is one result of the work of this 
committee: 


Bibliography 

Books that inspire the social spirit: 

Twenty Years at Hull-House, Addams. 

Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Addams. 

American in Process, Robert Woods. 

One Way Out, W. Carleton. 

They Who Knock at Our Gates, Antin. 

Immigrant Tide, its Ebb and Flow, Steiner. 

On the Trail of the Immigrant, Steiner. 

Introducing the American Spirit, Steiner. 

Nationalizing America, Steiner. 

Schoolmaster of the Great City, A. Patri. 

Souls of Black Folks, Du Bois. 

Story of a Pioneer, Anna H. Shaw. 

Foreign-born American, Jane Robbins, Outlook, August 
18, 1906. 

Books dealing with immigrant experiences, inspirational: 
Making of an American, Riis (Danish). 

Promised Land, Antin (Russian Jew). 

The Lie, Antin (Atlantic Reading Series). 

Against the Current, Steiner (Hungarian Jew). 

From Alien to Citizen, Steiner. 

My Mother and I, Stern (Polish Jew). 

Out of the Shadow, Cohen (Russian Jew), 

One of Them, Hasanovitz (Russian Jew). 

65 


66 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution, Brcsh- 
kovsky. 

Far Journey, Rihbany (Syrian). 

Up from Slavery, Washington. 

Karl Bitter, F. Schevill (Hungarian). 

Michael Anagnos, F. B. Sanborn (Greek). 

Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by 
Themselves, H. Holt. 

My Immigrant Neighbors, Gertrude Brown, Outlook, as 
listed below— 

Becky on the Unemployed, August 18, 1915. 

An Artist in a Machine-Made World, August 25, 1915. 
Graziella’s Debt, September 1, 1915. 

Matilda’s Gardening, September 15, 1915. 

Kalevala (Crawford) (Finland). 

Pan Tadeuxa, Michiewicz (Lithuanian and Polish). 

Scum o’ the Earth, and other Poems, Schauffler. 

General immigration: 

Immigration Problems, Jenks and Lauck. 

The Immigrant; an Asset and a Liability, Haskin. 

Races and Immigrants in America, Commons. 

Selected articles on Immigration, Debaters’ Handbook 
Series, Reely. 

Special nationalities: 

Armenians— 

Tragedy of Armenia, Papazian. 

Armenian Poems, Alice Stone Blackwell. 

Through Armenia on Horseback, Hepworth. 

Slavs— 

Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, Balch. 

Bohemia Under Hapsburg Misrule, Capek. 

Slovaks of Hungary, Capek. 

Heart of Europe, Pergler. 

Interpretation of the Russian People, Wiener. 
Potential Russia, Child. 

A Hundred Years of Russian History, Howe. 

Some Russian Heroes, Saints, and Sinners, Howe. 
Russian Empire of To-day and Yesterday, Winter. 
History of the Lithuanian Nation, etc., Jusaitis. 
Ukraine’s Claim to Freedom, Ukrainian National As¬ 
sociation. 

Serbia in Light and Darkness, Velimirovic. 

Serbia; a Sketch, Reed, H. L. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 


67 


Rumania— 

Rumania, Her History and Politics, Mitrany. 

Domestic Life in Rumania, Kirke. 

Greeks— 

Greeks in America, Burgess. 

Story of the Greek People, Tappan. 

Syria— 

New International Encyclopedia. 

Far Hourney, Rihbany. 

Syrian Christ, Rihbany. 

America, Save the Near East, Rihbany. 

Syrian Home Life, Jessup. 

Syria, The Land of Lebanon, Leary. 

Fifty-three Years in Syria, Jessup. 

Italy— 

Italian To-day, American To-morrow, Robbins, Out¬ 
look, June 10, 1905. 

The Coming of the Italian, Outlook, February 24, 1906. 
Races and Immigrants in America, Commons. 

Italian Life in Town and Country, Villari, L. 

Finland— 

Finland and the Finns, Reade. 

Finland as It Is, De Windt. 

Summer Tour in Finland, Waineman. 

The Land of a Thousand Lakes, Young. 

Finland To-day, Renwick. 

Portugal— 

Portugal of the Portuguese, Bell. 

Portugal, Old and Young, Young. 

The Azores, Haeberle, National Geographic Magazine, 
June, 1919. 

Poland, historical— 

Old Homes of New Americans, Clark. 

Poland, the Knight Among Nations, Van Norman, 
Poland, Brandes. 

Poland of To-day and Yesterday, Winter. 

Poland, a Study in National Idealism, Gardner. 
Historical fiction— 

With Fire and Sword, Sienkiewicz. 

The Deluge, Sienkiewicz. 



68 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Pan Michael, Sienkiewicz. 

Brief History of Poland, Orvis. 

Poland, peasants— 

Polish Peasant in Europe and America, Thomas and 
Ananieki. 

Slavs on Southern Farms, Hodges. 

Two Glimpses of New England Poles, Forum, Feb¬ 
ruary, 1914. 

Americanizing Eighty Thousand Poles, Survey, June 
4, 1910. 

The Black Dirt People, Outlook, December 25, 1909. 
The Pole in the Land of the Puritan, New England 
Magazine, October, 1903. 

Jan, the Polish Miner, Outlook, March 26, ii'iO. 

Poland, Polish Jews— 

Jews of Russia and Poland, Friedlaender. 

My Mother and I, Stern. 

Out of the Shadow, Cohen. 

Promised Land, Antin. 

Lithuania— 

History of the Lithuanian Nation, etc., Jusaitis. 

Pan Tadeusz, Mickiewicz. 

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect, Szlupas, J, 


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